Sophomore swingman Amir Garrett will leave the St. John’s program and transfer to another institution, he announced via a series of messages on his Twitter page Tuesday night.

Garrett, who came to St. John’s in the second semester of his freshman season after running to eligibility issues with the NCAA at the beginning of the 2011-12 season, saw decreased minutes during his sophomore year. He averaged 5.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in just over 20 minutes per game for a team that finished 17-16 on the year, including 8-10 in the Big East.

Garrett is a native of Los Angeles, Calif., and was part of Steve Lavin’s first full recruiting class that came to Queens. That class included nine players: Moe Harkless, Sir’Dominic Pointer, D’Angelo Harrison, Norvel Pelle, JaKarr Sampson, Phil Greene, Nurideen Lindsey, God’sgift Achiuwa, and Garrett.

Of those nine, Pelle never played college ball because of academic issues and has now entered his name into the 2013 NBA draft, Lindsey transferred to Rider and was eligible to play immediately this past season, and Harrison was suspended for the end of the regular season and entire postseason for conduct detrimental to the team.

Garrett has opportunities outside of basketball, though. He is currently signed to play minor league baseball in the Cincinnati Reds farm system, but says that he will continue his basketball career at another school.

After a long thought out process of speaking with my family, I will be leaving St. John’s basketball program!